26th April 2008 - Viva La Republica event, central London

What a night!

This was an amazing evening in a whole host of ways. The Yaa Asantewaa Arts and Community Centre in London hosted a splendid evening of poetry, dance, film and music to celebrate the Spanish Republic, 1932-1939. It brought together the extended families of the Basque children, evacuated from Bilbao in 1937, and members of the International Brigade who had fought fascism at that time, and their friends and families.

We arrived early as the organisers were still setting up. We secured a small room out the back, to tune up, etc. However, before the hubbub really began, we had the chance and honour to met with Jack Jones, the former trade union leader, and an International Brigader himself and had been wounded in the Spanish Civil War. Even at 95, there was no doubting this man's conviction and intellect. It was highlight of the evening to speak with him.

The evening began with the choir from the Spanish School in London. Then there was some superb dancing by an Asturian dance troupe based in London - with a bagpipe player of astonishing dexterity - and what a sweet sound the gaitas has. Jim Jump, Herminio Martinez and others gave some excellent readings of poetry and manged well to calm an audience of c300-350. There was a very interesting film shown on the rise of fascism and the fight against fascism in Europe through the 1930s - to help set the Spanish Civil War in its historical context.

Finally we went on to play. We naturally concentrated on a mainly Spanish related set. So, we did some dance tunes and Anada Pa Julia. We sang The Bite, which went down very well. Sadly, Jack Jones had left by this time - sad because he had actually known the man to whom the song is dedicated, George Wheeler.

We sang Ron Angel's Chemical Workers' Song as an expression of the industrial link that the North East of England had had with the International Brigade.

Finally, we finished the evening with Solo Por Tres Meses. I explained that theirs was a unique audience for this song in that, in most places we perform it, it is to people who don't know the story. However, it is this audience's story and a fair number of the children that had been on the boat to Southampton were in the audience. In this sense, it was a song that we hoped would meet their approval. I am pleased to say that it did and we were applauded to the rafters at the end and asked to do an encore. This was particularly pleasing for Rob -for whom this is a very important group of people. Many friends of his parents were there alongside many friends from the world of music.

Thankfully, the new pristine copies of the new CD, with Solo Por Tres Meses had arrived in time, and we sold a lot of copies afterwards - proceeds going to the Basque Children's committee of course.

A third night home in a week; dodging double-decker buses on their last run home on a Saturday night - no wonder I sat and had a quieting bottle of beer once the car was parked up and the kit bought inside.

Attention is now turned to some upcoming Tam Lin gigs and a return to Cambridge for us - before the Broadstairs festival.

More stocks of the CD will be arriving soon and we very much feel we are taking na-mara on to the next level. This is something we are both very excited about.

24th April 2008 - Bishop Stortford, new CD

Our second of three gigs in a single week! Heady stuff for those of us with day jobs as well.

This was our chance to return to fellow namesake's Jon McNamara's club. The Bishop Stortford club is a club with real character and characters, and Jon most certainly fits that bill! After our first visit to the club, Jon had been content to book us for a full slot - some thing we are always keen to do. There is something about getting the chance to settle into a performance and deliver to the best of one's ability. This date had arisen as a result of Jon having to reschedule his Spring programme, and we were happy to oblige for him!

The other really exciting news for the week was that our new 4-track EP CD had arrived from Rightback Records. Craig and the team had done a fantastic production job and the record looked excellent. Sadly, the first batch was missing the last 4 seconds of the last track. Distraught, Craig had rushed in a new order to the factory. However, so keen were some of those attending at Bishop Stortford to get hold of 'Only For Three Months' that they were happy to put up with this glitch!

Everywhere we go now, the audiences are falling in love with Solo Por Tres Meses. The superb tune from Javier Tejedor gives the words real pathos, and the tragedy of the story tells itself. At the end of the evening, we had the kindest of words and compliments from a number of people in the audience. It is hard to convey how important such feedback is - to help one through the hard work of turning raw materials into something that moves and excites audiences.

Still, we have our sternest test of the new song, and our other Spanish material on Saturday when we play at the Viva La Republica day in London

22nd April 2008 - St Neots

Owing to a late call off by a booked artist, the organisers at St Neots had asked if we would fill in and do a 40 minute showcase slot. This gave us the chance to again share the evening with Paul Cherrington and Pamela Ward, who had supported us wonderfully at Baldock the previous month.

It was lovely to hear them again and, with a bit more time available to them, they did an excellent and extended set bringing a lot more of Pamela's bluesy side to the fore. Excellent guitar work from Paul, as always.

We did an extended set with some new material. This included The Bite and some Asturian dance music, in preparation for our Basque celebration event planned for the end of the week.
It is always gratifying to hear people telling each other on the way out(rather than us) that they had had a splendid evening.

We managed to have a longer chat with organiser Roger than we had managed before, which was very pleasant. We are hopeful of doing more with the St Neots club - we have certainly enjoyed being there and, I am pleased to say, they seem to have enjoyed having us there.

8th April 2008 - St Neots

A long awaited return to St Neots Folk Club for us. Indeed, as it turned out, this was to be the first of two visits in quick succession.

We concentrated on letting Roger and Patti and the regulars at the club hear how our repetoire had changed since we were last with them. We did Three Bonny Ships, Solo Poor Tres Meses and Anada Pa Julia, and they were all very well received.

The main act was the American singer Debra Cowan, accompanied by the amazing Pete Smith on guitar - now that's what I call Taylor guitars! Hamish Currie was also there, getting a feel for the place ahead of his full spot there a few weeks later.

A very pleasant evening which set up our return visit very nicely.